‘The World Crisis – and Beyond Brussels, October 28 -
November 1, 2009 Conference on
Alternatives and Transformation Paths to Overcome the Regime of
Crisis-Capitalism Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in cooperation with World Forum for
Alternatives and TNI 164
Vera Vratusa
Short Theses
1. Describe the situation of
the capitalist state in your region:
Neo-liberal socio/economic
policy of the corrupted government instituted in Serbia after 1999 NATO
bombing, building of military base Bond still and putting fire to the building
of the Parliament in which the election materials were stored of the September
2000 elections, is to a certain extent corrected in the direction of state
re-regulation (stimulating measures for buying cars in exchange for old ones,
infrastructural projects). These measures are insufficient, having no vision of
structural and innovative transformations necessary to mitigate great damage
made by destruction of domestic banking system and industrial production
through robbery privatization of strategic enterprises and systems at the rock
bottom prices with new owners failing to organize production and abolishment of
protective tariffs without any advantages accruing to EU member states, fall of
investment in technological renewal of old equipment, dependence on credits and
rising indebtedness and trade deficit. Under the pressure of IMF the government
is contemplating taxing already law salaries and pensions, instead of
progressively taxing banks and new millionaires that became rich over night
through shady deals. In conditions when government has just few
parliamentarians more than the opposition and unemployment rising, new
elections can be expected but with no anti-capitalist oriented political party
in sight. Since the aim of imperialists is still not fully realized, they are still
paying separatists and terrorists to keep up tension and pressure for further
territorial fragmentation of
2. What is the impact of the
present international capitalist and imperialist policies in your region?
Instigation and exacerbation of
civil wars in former
165 and the rest semi-colonies suffering from aging
population and brain drain, including the most developed and seemingly most
independent and only EU member state, Slovenia.
3. What are important
projects of emancipatory transformation and
alternative development in your region?
Are there concrete examples
already successfully working? Due to cooperation between bureaucratized trade
unions with the government and owners in extinguishing the fire of isolated
strikes, resistance is still fragmented. In the last weeks however, encouraging
examples of coordination of demands for breaking of the privatization
agreements with new owners who did not fulfill their obligations and returning
of enterprises to the employees to manage them are appearing. There is still
however no anti-capitalist breakthroughs, since even in enterprises with the
majority employee ownership, some form of group private property, there are
plans to search for the rescue in “strategic partners” and “better owners”.
There are still no attempts at self-employment through cooperatives avoiding
middlemen between producers and consumers and still less attempts at
realization of integral self-management at all levels of decision making of
freely associated producers and consumers.
4. Who are the possible
actors and necessary coalitions for change in your region? Unemployed, employed who for months did not receive
salaries or are receiving too low salaries, peasants brought to ruin by import
of subsidized EU agricultural products, young made to pay high scholarships in
commercialized higher education along the lines of corporate oriented
166 and by
the working classes, social ownership of production means, democratic planning
and investment in renewable energy sources locally available and in public
transport, aiming at human development instead at private profit.
5. Please give a global
outlook on the upcoming decade. What is the most urgent issue the left movement
must raise and how can it be realized?
Within broadly defined left movement there seams not to be enough radicalism to demand anti capitalist transformations – predominate demands for re-embedded, more organized, more socially responsible…capitalism. In such situation the most urgent issue is to stop privatization of remaining public enterprises and services and attempt to pull through legislature forbidding privatization of natural monopolies like water and stimulating participation of citizens in decision making including through information technology mediated frequent referendums and participation of employed in decision making, profits and ownership. In the financial sphere, wherever exist central banks as private institutions they should be put out of business and replaced by sovereign central national banks under the control of parliaments, contributing through controlled non-inflationary emission to long-term and low interest rates investment in public infrastructural, educational and health projects. It is the challenge for the most class conscious activists to keep reminding that private property is just the legal expression of the class division of labor and that as long as it exists there will persist as well exploitation and oppression.